Blind But Brilliant: The Pitied Bride With Hidden Faces

"I love you so much, Elsie. You're everything Khloe isn't—warm, soft, and you actually want to give yourself to me."

Bodies tangled across the king-sized bed, Leo Barnett's ragged breaths swallowed up by Elsie Norris's quiet, trembling moans as the mattress rocked beneath them.

"Come on, let me hear you," he murmured, fingers digging possessively into the curve of her narrow waist.

"No, Leo, we shouldn't…" she whispered, twisting beneath him. "This is supposed to be the room you and my sister share after the wedding. What if she walks in and catches us?"

Leo let out a low, amused laugh, brushing his mouth along her shoulder as he moved. "She won't. She's still wandering those wineries, hunting down that 'perfect bottle' I sent her for. Actually, I bought it days ago. It's the same one we finished earlier."

Elsie's breathless laugh floated through the hallway. "Oh my God, you're awful," she teased, her voice warm and intimate.

The sound hit Khloe Norris like a strike to the ribs—a cruel confirmation of the betrayal unfolding just beyond her reach.

She hovered at the bedroom doorway, the same room she and Leo were supposed to share. Her fingertips drifted over the edge of the half-open door, the wood cool beneath her touch.

Yet she didn't push it wider. She didn't burst in or unleash the outrage clawing at her chest.

What difference would it make? Even if she couldn't witness the depravity happening inside, the truth carved deep anyway.

She was blind. And in this moment, she felt far worse—she felt like a fool in the dark, foolish enough to love a man who never deserved her.

A year earlier, she had been hunting the lost perfume formula, Soul Resonance. That was when fate shoved Leo into her path—cornered by a convoy of black SUVs, desperate and outnumbered. She had thrown herself between him and danger, wagering her life for him and losing her vision in the aftermath.

Back then, he had clasped her trembling hands in both of his, his voice unsteady with emotion as he vowed to marry her. He had sworn he would stay beside her for the rest of his life and never let her face the world alone.

At nineteen, in those naive days, Khloe barely understood what love meant, yet her heart had latched onto Leo the moment she first laid eyes on him. That crash had ended up being both the first time—and the last time—she ever saw his face.

Khloe eased back a step, cradling the bottle of wine she had spent a small fortune and countless favors to obtain, especially since Leo had snagged one of the only two bottles in existence.

Before she could move, Leo's voice cut across the room again. "Elsie, it's always been you—the only woman I ever wanted to marry. I'm not wasting my life tying myself to that blind fool tomorrow."

His tone rose, dripping with arrogance. "The only reason I kept her around was for